Business News of Sunday, 17 June 2018

Source: ghanaiantimes.com.gh

AGI pledges support for NABCO programme

Afua Gyamfua Owusu-Akyaw is President of Association of Ghana Industries (AGI) Afua Gyamfua Owusu-Akyaw is President of Association of Ghana Industries (AGI)

The Association of Ghana Industries (AGI) has expressed its readiness to support the government’s Nation Builders Corps (NABCO) programme to enrol the first batch of applicants come August, this year.

It has, therefore, submitted names of more than 250 private companies nationwide to the NaBCo Secretariat under the “Enterprise Ghana Module” to enrol and train successful applicants.

The chairperson of the association in the Ashanti and Brong-Ahafo regions, Mrs Afua Gyamfua Owusu-Akyaw, in a chat with the Ghanaian Times here, during an overview of the NaBCo project by the Ministry of Trade and Industry, said AGI was working closely with government and the NaBCo Secretariat to effectively play its role in the programme.

At a meeting which was attended by a section of AGI, development partners and other stakeholders of NaBCo, Mrs Owusu-Akyaw lauded government for the initiative, noting that the training would help broaden and add up to the knowledge of the trainees and to prepare them for permanent employments.

The meeting was to engage private trade and industry associations, trade agencies with a focus on “Enterprise Ghana Module” and the role of the private companies and industry towards the training of the graduates.

Taking stakeholders through a presentation on the overview of NaBCo, the Deputy Minister of Trade and Industries in-charge of industry, Mr Robert Ahomka Lindsay, assured of government’s preparedness to providing jobs noting that, the “Enterprise Ghana” programme was to create employment for graduates and wealth for local private enterprises.

He said government has targeted 500 private companies to enrol graduates under the “Enterprise Ghana” initiative.

On his part, Mr Boris Baidoo, the Managing Director of Boris B’s Farms and Veterinary, lauded government for the programme disclosing that his company and other private companies in the agricultural sector who are about to embark on projects under the One-District-One-Factory, would need to employ many people and train them as they would eventually help with the expansion of their various projects.

He said it would be fulfilling to know the number of graduates the NaBCo programme would employ in the years to come solving part of the unemployment problem in the country.

The NaBCo programme which was launched in Kumasi on May 1, 2018 by the President, Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo is expected to employ 100,000 graduates for the period of three years not only in the local industries but also in the health, education, technology, finance as well as the agricultural sector.